


halloween in los angeles

by lookngforalaska



Category: American Horror Story, American Horror Story: Apocalypse, American Horror Story: Murder House
Genre: AHS, Alcohol, American Horror Story References, F/M, Ghosts, Halloween, Murder House, Spirits, Teen Angst, Teen Romance, Underage Smoking, my heart hurts, they're all ghosts, written in between s8 because they've reunited
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-04
Updated: 2018-11-04
Packaged: 2019-08-17 07:33:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16511972
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lookngforalaska/pseuds/lookngforalaska
Summary: 7 years after the Harmons’ deaths and one year after Tate and Violet reunited, the ghosts that inhabit the Murder House have another Halloween out of the house.





	halloween in los angeles

**Author's Note:**

> hi! this is my first post on here. i've been writing a lot of Violate lately and I started writing this a couple days before Halloween as a lot of my twitter mutuals and I were talking about what Violet and Tate would be getting up to this Halloween so I decided to write this!

“Violet. Wake up.” Tate was whispering in Violet’s ears until she woke up. Today was Halloween, and Halloween was like Christmas, their birthday, New Years, and the best orgasm ever all rolled into one to the ghost inhabitants that were stuck here in this world. This was Violet and Tate’s second Halloween back together. Usually, Violet found something to do by herself, or she would do something with her mom. Sometimes they’d stay in for a bit and carve pumpkins and decorate with Moira, and then go out to a movie. Chad and Patrick would always make it competitive with Vivien, arguing like it had to look perfect, like she cared anymore. This was also the second year without Moira. Violet had tried last year to split her time equally between her mom and Tate, something she never had to do. Violet woke up to Tate’s hair in her face. “Happy Halloween,” he smiled at her. “Do you think your mom will want you to carve pumpkins again this year? It’s so cute that you do that.” Tate was sort of joking with her but he knew that Violet liked to still spend time with Vivien, especially considering she didn’t have Moira to talk to anymore. “Probably.” Violet rolled her eyes and gave a sleepy smile to her boyfriend and gave him a lazy one-armed hug. Violet descended the staircase by herself to the kitchen where she was greeted by Vivien. She smiled at her daughter and patted the seat next to her. “Come on. We do this every year.” She smiled at Violet and Violet rolled her eyes and sat down.

After a long while of silent carving, Violet decided to speak. “I’m sorry you don’t have Moira to talk to anymore, mom. I miss her, too.” She smiled sort of sadly, she never really knew how to comfort her mom. “I know, I still have you though. But I’m still the adult and I can take care of myself. You’re still a teenager and need to do teenager stuff, and I don’t want you stuck in this house all day and have to wait another year to go out into the world. Plus, someone’s waiting for you.” Vivien had just finished putting her second pumpkin out and was eyeing one of the kitchen doors. Tate appeared in the doorway, holding his hands behind his back like he was hiding something. He grinned and reached out for Violet’s hand. “You ready to go?” Violet looked back at her mom and she shooed the young pair out of the door. Violet took Tate’s hand and grabbed her bag from the door and they headed out. They usually weren’t seen coming out because they used a side gate. They also weren’t seen because everyone avoided this part of the street. Back in 2012, everybody in LA heard about mainly Vivien and Ben, not so much Violet. She still had to be careful, though. The Eternal Darkness Tour still runs, though. Sometimes, they got the odd break-in but usually it was pretty quiet. 

They stopped outside the house and Tate gave Violet something. “Your annual black flower.” He smiled down at her and waited for her to take it. When Tate first gave Violet the flower, she said he was the first boy ever to. Ever since then, on Halloween, Tate would leave her a black flower in her room. She kept all of them, of course, and a few of them were wilting in a vase on her desk. Violet took the flower and smiled at him, thinking of the first time he gave her one. “Thanks. I love it. Them.” She corrected herself so she could thank him for the others he left over the years. He leant down and kissed her head. “Where to?” they walked down the street, finding some things to do. They ended up outside an old movie theater that they both separately loved to go to, and bonded over when they first met. They never got to go together. Violet went a couple of Halloweens ago with Moira and her mom. She didn’t know that Tate ended up there, too. He usually went there, or to a library, or to the beach at night. Violet tried to actively avoid the beach, seeing as that was Tate’s spot, but she always had to go for a little while. Just to make sure. They were leaning up against the theater wall while Violet smoked a cigarette, and Tate had his arm round her shoulder. “Let’s watch Halloween. You love being scared.” Tate suggested when Violet had dropped her cigarette and stomped it out onto the sidewalk. She rolled her eyes and agreed. “There’s nothing else that looks good on, and I bet it’ll suck. They all do.” Tate laughed at her reluctant agreement and they grasped each other’s hands as they snuck in.

They sat at the back of the theater, waiting for the movie to start. “I came here every Halloween up until the one before you arrived.” Tate announced. He rested his head on Violet’s shoulder as the theater went dark and the movie started playing. A lot of the movie-goers in front of them were wearing Michael Myers masks. Violet saw and rolled her eyes. “That’s total bullshit.” They both laughed as she said it a little too loudly. A guy around eighteen turned around to look at them both. “Do you fucking mind?” Violet laughed into Tate’s sweater as he apologized to the guy. He reached for her hand and kissed the back of it.

Around an hour in, Tate started getting bored. They both started laughing when someone stupid got killed, and never really got scared. A girl a couple rows in front of them screeched. “This shit ain’t even scary!” Tate shouted. “This is bullshit.” Violet said loudly, too. This seemed to grab the majority of the screen’s attention as they turned to look at the couple. A theater attendant came up to them. “Excuse me, I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to leave.” “Fine, we were leaving anyway.” Violet rolled her eyes as she pulled Tate from his seat as they walked out of the screen. Tate’s fists were clenched and he pushed a couple of buckets of popcorn over and they both stormed out, laughing. It was late afternoon when they came out, and they were walking aimlessly along the street. They linked hands and Violet held onto Tate’s bicep as they window shopped and looked at all the kooky stores. Tate saw a tattered sign on a lamppost and went to look at it. He ripped it off and covered it over his face so only his eyes were showing to show Violet. He pointed at it. "Wanna go?" Violet furrowed her brows and grabbed it from him.

 

“A haunted house? Really? OUR house is haunted! By us, Tate!” she was half being serious, but half joking. “I’ll go anywhere with you, though. It’s our day,” Violet continued. She really didn’t mind where they went, and Tate looked so happy. He beamed at her when he heard her answer. They found the house pretty easily. It was in quite a quiet neighborhood, but there were lots of kids and parents running around and going trick or treating. A little girl, around six or seven, dressed as a witch, walked up to Tate and Violet and stared at them. “Why aren’t you wearing a costume?” She looked puzzled. Tate smiled at her. “We are. We’re ghosts!” He was always good with kids. Violet, not so much. She didn’t really have to be: she didn’t have to care for a baby brother or sister. The girl dressed up as a witch laughed and ran back to her mom. They walked down to the end of the street and found the haunted house. It looked pretty good from the outside, there were lots of pumpkins and Halloween music playing and cobwebs and fake gravestones. “I haven’t been to one of these since I was a kid. I used to sneak out of the house and take Addie with me, Constance hated going to shit like this.” Tate was sort of rambling and telling Violet all about his life. She didn’t mind though. She wondered about all the things he had wanted to tell her but couldn’t, and now he finally could. He kept looking down at her and into her eyes to make sure she was okay. He also kept asking every five minutes. “I’m fine,” she punched his arm. 

“This Halloween feels special, don’t you think?” she was speaking her mind aloud, she didn’t really intend for him to reply. “Special how?” he asked. “Different. Like something’s gonna change.” Violet sounded a bit worried. “The different bit I can see. It feels better. It feels like the first Halloween we spent together. Like this one’s a momentous occasion. And hey, if something does happen, we’ll be together. I’m always here.” he side smiled and rubbed her arm as they walked through the LA house. The main lights were off, but the owners had strung red skull fairy lights up around the house. Violet tripped as she stepped on Tate’s foot. She rolled her eyes as Tate laughed at her. “See, just like home. Always tripping over ghosts.” They looked very out of place, as everyone walking through were either kids in fancy Halloween costumes or bored parents walking through and plugging their ears when their kids screamed. Tate and Violet were having their own conversation as they walked through, not really caring about the actors jumping out at them. Violet recognized a couple of kids that were in her grade at school. Obviously, they weren’t kids now. Most of them were in their 20s and in college. They didn’t recognize her. Nobody felt the need to report Violet’s death so it wasn’t really ‘big’ news like her parents, so it kind of got swept under the rug. Plus, she didn’t have many friends to mourn her. Leah moved away a year after everything happened. She and Violet met up one Halloween, and she had to make out like she had also moved away because of her parents. Leah felt different though, she was very wary of Violet. They stopped talking after that. 

In one room, there were fake coffins lining the floor and cobwebs and fake blood on the walls and there was scary music playing. They put paper bats up on the wall, too. Violet laughed. “We could’ve done better,” she crossed her arms and Tate pulled her in and kissed her forehead. Two young kids dressed as zombies were screaming in front of them as someone jumped out in front of them. Tate and Violet looked like they were having a leisurely stroll compared to everybody else as they laughed and made jokes. Violet lazily picked at a cobweb that had fallen down in front of her. The house started getting lighter as they got closer to the end. When they reached the exit, there was a woman, presumably the suburban mom who lived in the house, thanking everyone for coming. She was smiling at the kids and conversing quickly with the parents, probably her PTA friends. When it was Tate and Violet’s turn to leave, the mom looked at them and her smile dropped. “Thanks for coming.” She said coldly. She wouldn’t look either of them in the eyes and looked behind them to the next people.

“She was rude. Won’t be coming back to this next year!” Violet said loudly, as she walked backwards to look back at the house and stuck her middle finger up. Tate pulled her hand as they ran down the street wildly. It was dusk now, and there were more people out and about for trick or treating and parties. They walked aimlessly for a little while, until they got bored. They ended up sitting on the sidewalk, and Tate was nonchalantly playing with a hole in Violet’s tights where she tripped over. Violet fumbled around in her cardigan pocket for a cigarette. She lit it and blew a ring of smoke in Tate’s direction as he grabbed the cigarette to take a drag for himself. Violet leant her elbows on her knees as she looked at all the passing kids in their costumes. “I was a pirate one Halloween.” Tate patted her knee to pass the cigarette back. He could see her looking at the costumes. “I think I was nine. Addie was a moth. I stole some wings from a shitty Halloween store. Constance found them and stubbed her cigarettes out on them.” He was looking forward, out into the street, and his eyes were glossy. 

Violet swapped the cigarette to her other hand so she could touch his knee. He grabbed her hand and held it on his cheek. His face was cold. “I was a scarecrow one year,” Violet said between smoking the rest of her cigarette. “I always had to be scary. I was mad at my mom because she hadn’t made the costume scary.” She stopped to look at Tate, who was intently watching and listening to her. “I ended up running face first into our bathroom sink. I had a busted lip, a bruise covering my whole right eye, and my nose wouldn’t stop bleeding for an hour.” She laughed when she continued. “Mom was confused why I wasn’t crying. I was laughing, actually. I was finally scary. That’s why I got into a couple of fights in middle and high school. I wanted to be scary. Look scary.” Violet smiled as she remembered and looked back at Tate. She stood up onto the sidewalk and held out her hand for him to take. “Let’s go to the beach.” she whispered. It was getting darker now. They loved spending the last few hours of Halloween at the beach. They walked down the street hand in hand. It was crazy to them how much they still had to say to each other. They didn’t mind a lull in the conversation, they appreciated it. They loved being together on their favorite day.

When they reached the beach, it was getting darker. They loved going here at night time and nobody was around to annoy them. This was their place. They found a place in the surprisingly cold sand to sit and make a fire. They looked out at the waves, Tate always said that he loved the way the dark sky made the usually light blue waves look black and menacing. Violet rummaged around in her bag and pulled something out. “Want some?” she turned around to face Tate and sat on her knees, holding a bottle of whiskey. “I stole it from my dad’s stash a while ago.” she laughed as she pulled the top off. She wasn’t used to the weird burning sensation it caused in her throat, but she didn’t want to embarrass herself in front of Tate so she had a few more gulps. “Be careful,” he whispered as she shook the bottle back and forth teasingly at him as she took another cigarette out of her cardigan pocket to light. Violet always ended up sharing her cigarettes with Tate. “You want the rest of it?” Violet would say to him when she’d smoked half of the thing already. She let her body fall back onto the sand and she closed her eyes. She listened to the waves and the crackling of the fire and the rustling of the boy next to her. Tate leaned over to her and passed her the cigarette back, and kissed her gently on the mouth. He took another swig of the drink and wiped his mouth with his sweater sleeve. He laid back down next to Violet on the sand. She took a slow drag of her cigarette and flicked the ash onto the sand. She looked to the side at her boyfriend and smiled. “I’ve missed this. I know we basically do this every day but it’s nice to pretend we’re normal again.” she paused in her sentence to sit up and drink some of the whiskey. She hugged her knees as she smoked her cigarette and Tate leaned on his elbows to look at her.

“You know, I came here for a few Halloweens, trying to see if you’d be there. The first couple of years I didn’t really know how to get there, so I had to get Moira or my dad to ask you.” Violet looked embarrassed. She hated being mushy, but she felt like it was a good time. “I used to sit here for ages. It was weird without you. I’d smoke a cigarette and I didn’t feel the tug or the pat I usually do when you wanted me to pass it.” she flicked more ash over her knee. “I think one year I went late, and I saw you. I think you were crying. I got scared so, I ran off.” Tate had sat up now, holding onto Violet’s knee. “I knew I heard someone behind me. I never even thought about it being you, though. I didn’t know about the other times, either. I’m glad you told me.” he looked at Violet with so much love in his eyes. He leant over to her slowly and kissed her. She tasted of tobacco, coconut, and there was an smoky scent on her lips, which he thought was the whiskey. She fell backwards again, and he hovered over her. Violet automatically raised her hand to touch Tate’s face as their lips touched, she touched his chin, his jaw, grabbed onto his scraggly hair.

 

Tate held onto her wrist gently and rubbed his thumb along her arm, until he pinned it down next to her head onto the sand. He was practically straddling her, and he unlocked their lips for a minute to take a drag of Violet’s cigarette that was still stuck in her hand. He took a slow drag of the cigarette and made rings in the dark air. Violet sat up and closed the gap between them, fiddling with the low neckline of Tate’s scratchy sweater. She took her thumb and ran it along his exposed collarbones and up onto his jaw, like she was outlining a drawing. She smiled, as Tate used to do this when they went to sleep together. They both fell down onto the sand again. They’d finished the whiskey: they didn’t feel anything obviously, but Violet liked the burn in her throat. It was a different burn to when she smoked a cigarette. It must’ve been early in the morning now, they didn’t realize how long they’d been out for.

“What do you think everyone’s doing right now? Like, I mean everyone. My mom, Chad, Constance, my dad, Hayden, Addie, Moira, Leah…?” Violet asked after a while of silence. “Vivien is probably still getting shouted at by Chad about how the pumpkins weren’t right this year. Patrick’s out at some club, having the time of his life, my mom – I don’t even care. Ben? Pff. Hayden’s fucking that weird guy my mom was also fucking. Addie and Moira? I hope they’re…free.” He paused to see Violet leaning on his arm, her eyes closed. “Me too. I miss them both. Moira was so good to my mom. It’s sad to see her without a friend.” she mumbled, letting Tate know she was still listening, even though her eyes were closed. She repositioned her head and held onto his arm as he continued. “I’m sorry about Leah. I knew you two would talk a lot.” He tried to comfort her as he played with a strand of her hair and she mumbled an answer Tate couldn’t make out.

 

When Tate awoke, it must’ve been almost dawn. He was still lying in the sand and there were bits of sand all over his legs and on his sweater where he must’ve rolled over. He moved his hair out of his eyes and looked over to check on Violet and she was gone. He sat up quickly and saw the dead fire. He saw movement near the calm waves and saw Violet staring vacantly at them. Tate pulled his knees up close to him and shook the whiskey bottle to find a drop left. He let the small amount of spirit drip down his dry throat as it left a slight tingle. He hid the bottle back in Violet’s tattered bag and wiped his mouth with his hand. He stood up wobbly, shaking the sand from cracks and holes in his jeans. He walked to the edge where the sand and the sea met, where Violet was and touched her hand. He looked at her and her eyes were glossy and red and dark, like she’d been crying and her hair was tousled, with specks of sand, like she’d been tossing and turning on the sand while he slept calmly. Her grey hand that Tate wasn’t holding was shakily holding a cigarette to her lips as she let the smoke blow out of her nostrils. She didn’t bother flicking the ash off anymore.

“Hey,” Tate was tucking bits of straggly hair behind Violet’s ear so he could see her face. “Hey.” he repeated. He held her free hand and made her look at him. She took a drag from her cigarette as she looked at the floor. “Are you alright to go?” He held her hand in both of his hands and ran his thumb over her red knuckles. “No but, we have to.” she wiped her nose with the back of her hand and stubbed her cigarette out into the wet sand. Tate dropped her hand and wrapped his arm around her frail, shaking frame. He was scared to hold her any tighter than he already was in case she snapped in half and had to spend the rest of her life as two broken parts. 

 

She suddenly started laughing as she realized how much she was overreacting. She wiped her eyes and wrapped her cardigan around her body. It was chilly, but she was used to being cold in their house. “I’m being stupid. You’ve been dead a lot longer than me.” she pulled herself closer to her boyfriend and wrapped her arms around his waist. “True,” he smiled as he looked down at her, and she looked up at him. “I don’t care that I only have one day out of the year where I’m outside. I’ve always just wanted to be with you. In the bedroom, in the basement, in that dumb haunted house, here, on the beach, even in the fucking ground.” he kicked some of the sand when he said that. “I’m not sad about going home because I’m going home with you. I get to reminisce happily about our Halloween here, every day up until the next, and that’s why this beach is so special to us, because we’re here together. Once a year. Forever. Or until you get bored of me.” Tate rested his head on Violet’s. Before Violet could answer, Tate answered for her. “I didn’t say until I get bored of you because that will never happen. I waited so long for someone in my life and in my death and I finally found that someone in you. Even when you didn’t want to see me, I waited. So I’ll never fucking get bored of you.” they started walking slowly across the beach now to the sidewalk.

They saw a lot of people doing their ‘walk of shames’, early morning joggers, and people going to their jobs. Tate and Violet were making up things about these people’s backgrounds. “That woman is having an affair. She’s trying to get custody of her nine year old son.” Violet pointed at a tall, middle-aged blonde woman dressed in green plaid pants and a weird graphic tee from some random tourist store in some random city in Arizona. They ended up walking the rest of the way home in silence, but holding hands. Once they got on their street, they saw Hayden walking back with Patrick, one of the two nurses and Constance was walking slowly behind them with a cigarette in her mouth. Ben was behind her, trying to talk to her. He saw Violet and Tate walking towards the house and he waved at her. Violet rolled her eyes. “Oh god.” she whispered into Tate’s sweater. They walked up to the gate and turned to look at the empty street. The Halloween decorations seemed stupid now. “Happy fuckin’ Halloween.” Tate pulled Violet close to her. They walked into the cold house, and they ran upstairs to their bedroom. They were greeted by a knock moments later, and Vivien beckoned for Violet to come out into the hallway. “Did you have fun?” Vivien kissed Violet’s head. “Yeah. Yeah, I really did. I was sad at first because I didn’t want to leave and come back here but now I—Yeah. I did.” She repeated herself as she looked back in her room and saw Tate laying on the bed, moving his legs and humming to a song he put on. Violet smiled and looked back at her mom. “I love you, mom. I missed you.”


End file.
